The Book of Masks (Vol. 5)

A Favor from Lacie

Previously: "The Hero Gets His Reward" 

You text Lacie back an acceptance. She replies, Great come eat lunch w us tomr too. To that, at least, you say that it depends on what your own friends want to do.

But it turns out you do have to go looking for them when lunch comes around on Monday.

* * * * *

It's all on account of that stupid time capsule assignment. You get into class Monday morning and realize that you forgot all about it, and that it is due today. At least Mr. Walberg gives you an 8-hour extension, telling you that he'll knock only a single letter grade off if you get him your item by five o'clock.

That will mean running home and getting that book you found at Arnholm's, because that's the only thing you can think to bring him off the top of your head. (And at least you had the presence of mind to remember it, and that you originally got it with the intention of using it for the time capsule.) And so instead of texting Lacie to give her your regrets about joining her after school, you go find her at lunch. That way you will get to accept her invitation (kind of) instead of just being a dick about cancelling it.

You find her in line in front of the cafeteria, with most everyone you saw at her restaurant on Saturday. Lacie herself bursts into a smile when you sidle up to her.

"Hey Will!" she says, and slides an arm around you to give you a quick hug. "Your family like the cake?"

"It was awesome. I think I'm gonna have to fight my dad and little brother for it," you tell her, and she laughs. "I'm gonna have lunch with you, if that's okay—"

"Love it!"

"—but I'm gonna have to cancel on coming over to your place this afternoon."

"Why?" asks Tiffany with a plump smile. "You got a date?"

"Yeah, with one of my teachers," you retort. "I gotta run home and get some homework I forgot to bring in, get it back up to him by five o'clock."

"Can't you come out to my place after?" Lacie asks.

"Well, then it runs into my supper time. Unless you're talking about coming over to your place after supper."

Lacie exchanges a tight smile with Tiffany and Kristin.

"Yeah," she says, "my parents shut things down after supper. Gosh, your family must eat early. That's too bad."

"Why don't you go pick up your homework now?" Lorenzo asks bluntly. He's been giving you a jaundiced look this whole time, and his expression seems to sneer, You're an idiot for not thinking of it. "Then you'll have your after-school time free."

"Well, I—"

Then you look around, and see the expressions on the girls' faces. All of them clearly think this is a dynamite idea.

And, when you consider it, it would work. Maybe. Assuming you don't get in trouble with your mother for cutting out of school briefly.

"Yeah, okay, I guess I got time to do that," you confess. "Um— Okay, lemme go do that now!"

Peals of laughter chase after as you scramble away.

* * * * *

Your mom, as it happens, isn't home when you get there, and you're able to snatch that book from your room and get away without her being the wiser. But you hit almost every red light on the way home, and on the way back, and you barely make it back before the bell rings to end lunch. Instead of taking it to Mr. Walberg, you decide to drop it off at his office after the final bell.

And so it happens that you have it in your backpack during your seventh-period study hall, when Lacie comes to find you in the library.

It's a real surprise when you look up to find her coming through the library door, and almost as much of a surprise when she comes over and slides into a chair at your table.

"Hey," she says. "You're not busy with homework, are you?"

"Well, I'm getting a head start," you tell her. "What's up with you?"

"I just thought I'd come looking for you. I remember you told me you have a study hall this period."

"Do you?"

"No, I'm skipping. Is it okay that I came in here?"

"No. I mean, it's fine! It's no problem!" You're feeling flustered. "I'm just surprised is all. I thought I'd just, um, see you at your place after school."

"Yeah, well, that's partly what I wanted to talk to you about. Oh, did you get that homework from home?"

"Yeah." You pat your backpack. "I'll give it to him after final bell."

"Well, I wanted to tell you that maybe you could stick around here a little longer before coming out. Um—" She looks embarrassed. "Bree is still really mad at you."

"Oh." You shouldn't care, but you do feel your heart sinking.

"Yeah. She's going to out with Jonas after school—they're going out, I guess they've got their own stuff they want to talk about—and she won't be back until after supper, I guess. But if you waited to be at my place until around four-thirty?" She gives you an apologetic smile. "Then she'd be gone."

"Oh, sure I can wait. Though if it'd be better if I just didn't come out—"

"No, I want you to come out!" Lacie hastily assures you. "It'll be a bunch of us. And, you know, Bree'll calm down. I mean, she'll still be mad at you, but—"

"Yeah, I get it. I'll wait until four-thirty before heading over."

"Thanks." There's a slight pause, and then she says, "What was this homework you forgot?"

"It's for a class project. A time capsule." You explain the assignment to her, and how you forgot it, and how you're tossing in something you more or less randomly found at the used book store last week. "It isn't even a good submission, I'm just stuck!" you conclude.

Her expression has turned thoughtful, and she is silent for a little while. Then she says, "What about some old mementos of Saratoga Falls?"

"What about them?" you ask.

"Well ... for the time capsule. I mean, if this other thing, what you brought, if it isn't the right kind of thing for your assignment— I've got some kind of historical mementos of Saratoga Falls you could put in."

You feel your eyes widen.

"Well, I don't want to take anything away from you," you protest.

"No, it's okay, it's nothing really," she says. "They're just some old junk, leftovers from when I was in Girl Scouts. Yeah, there are these old, like, metal plates in the concrete out at Potsdam Park, you know? And when I was in Girl Scouts we had to do some historical minded projects. And what I did for mine was, I made wax molds of those plates, and then I made copies using the molds. I've still got them, and they're just taking up space. I can let you have one of them, easy." She smiles.

You are, of course, blown away by this offer, and you try to turn it down out of politeness. But she urges it on you, and the more she describes them, the more you see that one of these effigies would be a much better contribution to the class project.

"Also," Lacie brightly adds as a clincher, "I can go home and get one and bring it back. And by the time I get done getting home and back, Bree will be gone and then we can go out to my house! So it's a win every way!"

And that clinches it.

But you do insist on giving her something in return. So you give her that old book you got at Arnholm's, explaining that if she doesn't want it she can throw it away, as that is what you were probably going to do with it.

* * * * *

She finds you in the library again at a little after four, and gives you the thing that she fetched from home. It startles you so badly you almost drop it.

It's a very flat but three-dimensional mold of a face, about the size of a small dinner plate, cast in plaster. The underlying plaster is white, but Lacie touched the face itself up in a dusky ochre, to give it a little more relief. The coloring is alright, but the thing itself is ghastly. It was obviously not cast from a real face, and is cartoonishly distorted, but there's enough expression in it to make it loathsome. The trouble is in the eyes, which are wide and staring, and that stare, when coupled with the gaping, down-drawn mouth, give it a fearful aspect, as though the person has just caught sight of something dreadful and is about to start screaming. You glance up furtively at Lacie.

"Yeah," she says. "There's a reason I'm getting rid of it. I kept it in a drawer all these years. The only reason I didn't get rid of it before was because I was too proud of the way it turned out. It looks just as horrible as the original."

She tells you of its history—it's one tile in a kind of mosaic of tiles, laid down in Potsdam Park—so that you can explain to Mr. Walberg what it is if he asks. He doesn't, though, and just accepts it when you hand it to him.

"Okay, now we'll go back to my place," Lacie says when that's done. "You remember the way? Well, you can follow me in your car. Oh, by the way, you can take that old book back, if you want."

"You don't want it?"

"Not especially. Unless there's something special about it. Is there?"

"No. Except most of the pages are glued shut."

"What?!"

"Yeah. That's why I said you could throw it away for me."

She titters.

"Well, maybe I'll keep it then," she says. "Could be a good prank gift."

That's all for now.

*
"Table of Contents (Vol. 5)" 
"The Book of Masks (Vol. 5)"